Synthesis of Nanocrystalline Boron Carbide by Direct Microwave Carbothermal Reduction of Boric Acid
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Hindawi Journal of Nanomaterials Volume 2017, Article ID 3983468, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/3983468 Research Article Synthesis of Nanocrystalline Boron Carbide by Direct Microwave Carbothermal Reduction of Boric Acid Rodolfo F. K. Gunnewiek, Pollyane M. Souto, and Ruth H. G. A. Kiminami Department of Materials Engineering, Federal University of Sao˜ Carlos, Rod. Washington Luiz, km 235, 13565-905 Sao˜ Carlos, SP, Brazil Correspondence should be addressed to Rodolfo F. K. Gunnewiek; [email protected] Received 24 January 2017; Accepted 12 March 2017; Published 27 March 2017 Academic Editor: Stefano Bellucci Copyright © 2017 Rodolfo F. K. Gunnewiek et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The excellent physical and chemical properties of boron carbide make it suitable for many applications. However, its synthesis requires a large amount of energy and is time-consuming. Microwave carbothermal reduction is a fast technique for producing well crystallized equiaxial boron carbide nanoparticles of about 50 nm and very few amounts of elongated nanoparticles were also synthesized. They presented an average length of 82 nm and a high aspect ratio (5.5). The total reaction time was only 20 minutes, which disfavor the growing process, leading to the synthesis of nanoparticles. Microwave-assisted synthesis leaded to producing boron-rich boron carbide. Increasing the forward power increases the boron content and enhances the efficiency of the reaction, resulting in better crystallized boron carbide. 1. Introduction (with 20%-at. of carbon) and even high carbon content boron carbide B11.4C3.6 (B3.17C), which corresponds to 24%-at. of Boron carbide is covalent carbide, which presents some of the carbon [2, 14–16]. The composition of boron carbide affects best physical and chemical properties. B4C is the third hardest its properties, since carbon-rich crystals approach the ideal materialandshowshighYoung’smodulus,highmeltingpoint ∘ crystal and have the lowest electrical conductivity, while (2450 C without decomposing), excellent chemical resis- 3 boron-rich crystals are more resistant to radiation damage. tance, very low density (2.52 g/cm ), low stiffness, excellent However, the ideal boron carbide structure, B4C, is composed thermoelectric properties, and good cross section absorption of B11C icosahedra and C-B-C chains comprising the longest of thermal neutrons. These properties make it suitable for diagonal in the rhombohedral structure [2]. numerous applications from wear resistant components and Boron carbide can be synthesized by different methods, cutting tools to high temperature thermocouples and neu- for example, magnesiothermic and aluminothermic reduc- tron absorbers [1–5]. Boron carbide can also be used as a tion, both of which are exothermic reductions of B2O3 in the precursor or reduction agent to produce boron nitride and presence of metallic magnesium or aluminum, and a carbon transition-metal diborides (TiB2,ZrB2,HfB2,andCrB2)[6– source [2, 16–18], vapor phase reaction [2], polymer precur- 10] and recently has been applied in gamma ray scintillator sors [17, 19–22], liquid phase reaction [23], and solid state and neutron detectors and as high efficiency thermoelectric reaction [15] are other alternative routes to producing boron material [11, 12]. carbide. The carbothermal reduction, a technique widely It belongs to the rhombohedral lattice R3m space group, used in industry and laboratory to produce mostly carbides, although a recent paper describes a second B4Cphasewith including boron carbide, consists of reacting an oxide (boron monoclinic structure, reopening the discussion about the oxide) and a carbon source at high temperatures, which boron carbide structure [13]. Boron carbide can be found normally takes several hours to complete [2]. in a wide range of carbon and boron compositions: from An inexpensive and efficient way to synthesize boron B11.4C (with 8%-at. of carbon) to the most well-known B4C carbide by the aforementioned technique is using boric acid 2 Journal of Nanomaterials Multimodal applicator power Forward Ceramic tube Stirrer Argon inlet Alumina boat and precursors ermal insulator Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the microwave reaction system. and carbon black or charcoal as starting materials [24–28]. reduction of boric acid. Microwave forward power, which The general reaction between boric acid and carbon is very influences the synthesis of boron carbide, is also evaluated for simple: first the boric acid dehydrates and is converted to both stoichiometric and hyperstoichiometric raw materials. boron anhydride, followed by the reduction to elemental boron by carbon, and finally the reaction of this species 2. Experimental Procedures with carbon, yielding boron carbide. This reaction is efficient 2 and pure boron carbide can be produced at temperatures Disordered carbon black with high surface area (263.2 m /g) ∘ above 1400 C and normally a long reaction time (1 h to 5 h) and pure boric acid (Merck, >99%) were used in this [2]. The reaction time and temperature, heating rate, and experiment. The raw materials, at a ratio of 4 : 7 mol of boric boron/carbon rate are essential parameters to control the acid/carbon (R4B), were suspended in ethanol (the boric acid dissolved completely) and stirred continuously on a hot plate final average particles size. Increasing both the reaction time ∘ and temperature enhances B4Csynthesis[25].Higherheating at 50 C for one hour to partially evaporate the solvent, which rates cause the raw materials to reach the final temperature rendered the suspension pasty. The partially dried paste was extruded into pellets and completely dried in a kiln at around rapidly, practically without undergoing an intermediate tem- ∘ perature. Higher temperature favors reactions in the vapor 50 C (this procedure was necessary to prevent the removal state and high levels of nucleation, which can result in finer oftheprecursorsbytheargonfluxduringthereaction).In particles. addition, to determine whether it is possible to synthesize Finer nanoparticles are hard to synthesize, because, high boron-content boron carbide, another precursor was besides the high nucleation rate caused by high temperature, prepared with a boric acid to carbon ratio of 8 : 7 (R8B). About the particles growing is also observed due the long reaction 2gofthepelletswasspreadonasmallalumina/mulliteboat time. This factor can be avoided by the use of microwaves, (50mminlength)andplacedinamicrowaveoven(2.45GHz, which reduces considerably the time and prevents excessive Cober, USA), whose reaction chamber was cleaned for 10 min particle growth. Hard materials such as TiC, TaC, WC, with an argon flow set at 1.0 L/min. The reaction systems were nanometric titanium carbide, and carbonitride have been designed to protect the oven and control the atmosphere, as produced by microwave irradiation [29–33]. depicted in Figure 1. The reaction system consisted in a low Nitrides and carbides are very difficult to sintering due porosity ceramic tube coated with refractory fiber (to avoid to their reduced diffusion coefficients. The use of nanos- heat loss) placed inside the oven cavity. An argon inlet was tructured boron carbide can enhance the sintering, because connected to the tube at one end and a gas collector at the the diffusion is accelerated due to the high surface energy, other. The rectangular boat crucible containing the precursor also leading to obtaining ceramics with controlled and finer wasinsertedintothetubeatthecenteroftheovencavity. microstructure (the benefits of finer microstructure in the The microwave forward power was set at 1.8 and 2.1 kW properties (e.g., mechanical, electrical, and others) are well for each composition. The samples were allowed to cool in known). The sintering step is influenced by the initial boron an argon atmosphere to prevent reoxidation, which took no carbide particle size and shape and also by additives, such more than 40 min. The cooled powders were deagglomerated as free carbon, which prevents the formation of boron oxide and ground in a mortar and sifted through a 325-mesh sieve. thin film [34] and a low melting point at the grain boundary, To determine the phase constitution, X-ray diffraction (XRD) aiding mass diffusion and also controlling grain growth [17]. patterns of the powders were recorded in a Siemens D5005 This paper describes a fast and efficient approach for diffractometer using copper K radiation ( =1,5406A).˚ preparing nanocrystalline B4C by microwave carbothermal Crystallite size was calculated using Scherrer’s relation Journal of Nanomaterials 3 350 (proportion of 4 : 7 of H3BO3/C), the formation of boron carbide is evident, and the well-defined peaks in the XRD 300 pattern are very clear. The peaks correspond to rhombohedral B4C for R4B-1 and R4B-2 and are consistent with JCPDS card 250 number 35-798, although smaller peaks corresponding to unreacted orthoboric acid, H3BO3, and a band of disordered 200 carbon were detected. Moreover, the intensity of the peaks increased along with the power level, possibly indicating 150 more crystalline boron carbide and/or more effective reac- Intensity (a.u.) Intensity tion, yielding a larger total amount of boron carbide when 100 synthesized at higher power. When the boric acid content in the precursor was doubled, the reaction